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Brief Synopsis

An ice skater sues a young doctor for malpractice.

Skater Frances Marlowe, who has just signed a lucrative contract with an ice show, is driving with her manager, Dan Morton, when her car crashes into a truck. Dr. James Kildare and his fiancée, nurse Mary Lamont, see the accident and help the victims, who are only slightly hurt, except for Frances, who has a fractured leg and a ruptured spleen. Because Jimmy is certain that Frances will die from internal bleeding if he does not operate immediately, he performs the surgery before the ambulance arrives. Back at Jimmy's hospital, New York's Blair General, Jimmy gives her a transfusion under the watchful eye of his mentor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. Meanwhile, Morton arrives with an insurance investigator and overhears switchboard operator Sally and orderly Vernon Briggs joke about finding a half-empty whiskey bottle in the car Jimmy was driving, unaware that Jimmy used the whiskey for an impromptu antiseptic. Eight weeks later, the cast is taken off Frances' leg, but she is unable to move it. She then becomes hysterical and screams accusations that her paralysis is Jimmy's fault. Jimmy and Gillespie have no idea what is causing the paralysis and are shocked when Frances changes hospitals and sues Jimmy for malpractice in the amount of $100,000. Jimmy must face a trial and Gillespie is worried that a jury of laymen will side with the patient instead of the doctor. After several staff members are served with subpoenas, hospital administrator Dr. Walter Carew wants to settle the case out of court, but Jimmy insists on going through with it. Realizing that if he had let Frances die on the road, he would not be facing a trial, Jimmy feels that he must uphold the physician's right and duty to operate under emergency circumstances. During the trial, it is established that the liquor bottle was found in the car and Reynolds, Frances' attorney, suggests that Jimmy had been drinking. Further testimony makes Jimmy's case seem hopeless until Vernon suggests that the bottle in the car came from "a drunk driver." Kildare goes to see the other driver in the accident, trucker Bob Hackley, and learns that he placed the bottle in the car because he did not want to be accused of driving drunk. Hackley also says that Frances might have prevented the collision but "seemed paralyzed" when she saw his truck. Jimmy then theorizes that Frances was suffering from a congenital spinal condition, and evidence indicates that her condition may have flared up after several falls on the ice just prior to the accident. Frances is convinced to undergo a new examination that seems to confirm Jimmy's diagnosis, but Reynolds urges her to postpone any operation until after she wins the case. Gillespie's impassioned testimony for a physician's freedom to attend a patient under emergency conditions results in the jury's request to adjourn the case until after the operation is performed. If it is a success, they will find for Jimmy, if not, they will award Frances the entire $100,000. Sixty days after Frances agrees to the surgery, her recovery is complete and she joyfully looks forward to resuming her career.